Starmer to ban under-16s from TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to ban under-16s from major social media platforms including TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram. The move escalates beyond the Online Safety Act 2023's duty-of-care framework toward hard age-based exclusion. The BBC reported the intention on 14 June 2026. No draft legislation has been published; the timeline remains unclear. Implementation faces technical and privacy challenges around age verification, as Australia's comparable late-2024 ban has shown.